Choosing Your Daily Concealed Carry Gear

Concealed carry gear will vary from person to person. What I suggest looking for in each piece of your daily concealed carry gear is size, usefulness, and versatility.

Choosing Your Daily Concealed Carry Gear

When picking equipment regardless of what it is ask if the size is one that you will find comfortable to carry concealed. If you chose a piece of daily carry equipment you later find is hard to conceal or uncomfortable carry eventually you may face the temptation to leave it at home or the car. If this happens you may not have it with you when you may need it most. When picking your equipment ask yourself, will each of these items be useful if you ever face an emergency life threatening or other wise?

I am attracted to flashlights, knives, the latest and greatest in handguns, holsters, and all the neatest accessories the firearms industry can throw at me. I realize there are limits to what a person can buy and carry while carrying concealed. Fortunately for me, my wife helps me to keep these urges in check when eyeing these latest and greatest items. What items do I carry you might ask? Well…..

For every day carry it is my Glock 27, compact yet potent. Loaded with Speer Gold Dot JHP’s. This may not be the most compact handgun, but for the most part this is not hard to conceal in my Aker leather holster carried strong side, along with one spare magazine.

The next item is my knife; it is made by Kershaw, and has been used in many roles since I started carrying it. Some people may ask why carry a knife when you have a gun. The part about a knife is if you ever need one and don’t have one you will be wishing you did. Knives are handy when opening a package, cut a loose string, or any other purpose you can find. I have seen all types of knives pressed into services they were not meant for. One occasion that pops to mind I saw a neighbor who was out deer hunting produce a knife to gut his deer that remarkably resembled one of his wife’s steak knives. My point is a knife is one of those indispensable multi-purpose items you should all ways have on your person.

My personal daily carry light is a Streamlight PT Professional Carry 2L. It uses two lithium CR123’s, on maximum power it produces a blinding 180 lumen beam, for general purpose use it has a 18 lumen setting, and it has a strobe function as well. This little LED light uses a C4 LED, this gives it good run times: High is 2.5 hours, Low is 33 hours, and Strobe is 6 hours. For its size, cost and usefulness it’s a good balance. The uses for a personal carry flashlight vary on the user they could include navigating low or no light areas, identifying friends, foes, to finding that lost contact lens on the bathroom floor.

Last but definitely not least is the cell phone; this little wonderment has grown in popularity, usefulness, and functions it can perform over the years. To the CCW holder it comes to one simple function, call for help. If you need to call the cops this will let you do it from pretty much anywhere, with some exceptions of the remote wilds. With today’s enhanced 911 centers they will be able to map where your location is even if you are not sure where you are.

The daily carry items I have talked about work for me. It is important to remember what works for one person may not all ways be suitable for the next.

Matt Schlueter is a retired Deputy Sheriff from South Dakota with over 19 years of combined experience in corrections and law enforcement, and held the position of Firearms Instructor and DARE officer with the Sheriffs Office he worked at till his retirement. He is also a NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, and owner/chief instructor of Schlueter Firearms Instruction. Matt’s goal is to provide the best information possible for those who want to further their knowledge and skills in shooting handguns. Matt’s goals also include providing the best training courses possible for students who attended courses he is offering. For those wishing to contact him please visit his website at www.learntwoshoot.com, or www.zwarriortraining.com or you can join him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SchlueterFirearmsInstruction.